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While You Were Sleeping: Football technically happened last night

With all due respect to the professional athletes risking their health for our entertainment last night, I’m not sure if the NFL’s Monday night twofer was particularly interesting or insightful. But football is king, so here we are. 

Quick reads before we move on: 

The Dolphins beat the Jets for their first win of the season, but lost Tyreek Hill to a gnarly dislocated knee in the second half. Miami is still in rough shape, while New York has started the Aaron Glenn era 0-4. Woof on both accounts.
In the nightcap, Denver cruised past an outmatched Cincinnati team, 28-3. It is painful to watch a Bengals team built to survive via its offense/MVP candidate quarterback Joe Burrow, who’s out until at least December with an injury, play without him. I can’t say the Broncos were overly impressive, but Cincinnati just had no chance. Tough watch. 

Enough of that. Onward:

Roadmaps: Here’s your cheat sheet

Quietly, we have arrived in the busiest part of the fall sports calendar. Football is fully in motion. The NBA is holding media days this week. The NHL is already playing preseason games. MLB begins its postseason today, and the WNBA Finals start this week, too. 

Sifting through all that glorious sports content can be difficult. I decided to host a brief digital roundtable to help preview some of this week’s shenanigans so you can watch the right thing and sound smart doing it. 

Let’s start with baseball. I rang up Andy McCullough for help: 

Hello, Andy. I need two things from you: a World Series prediction and the one thing you’re most interested to watch in these playoffs. 

“This could look really silly on Friday morning, because both teams could already be eliminated, but I’m taking the Dodgers over the Yankees. The Yankees were excellent in September, have a great 1-2 pitching duo of Max Fried and Carlos Rodón and still employ Aaron Judge. As for the Dodgers: They never played like a super-team, but they still have more talent than any other club. I think their starting rotation — led by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and, of course, Shohei Ohtani — will carry them.

“As for the most interesting thing: The Milwaukee Brewers put together the best record in baseball by playing with relentless energy and paying attention to detail. The team has been a postseason mainstay since 2018, but has only advanced beyond the National League Division Series once in that time. As the No. 1 overall seed, can the Brewers bring the World Series back to Milwaukee for the first time since 1982?”

Compelling. I’m rooting for a Phillies-Mariners World Series on vibes alone. See our entire MLB staff’s Wild Card Series predictions, and remember these first matchups are best of three. Things could get weird. 

Let’s move to the NBA, where Zach Harper saved the day for me: 

Welcome, Zach. Tell me the one non-Clippers thing that intrigues you most during media days. 

“Let’s keep this with some good ol’ West Coast bias and say the Lakers are incredibly fascinating. It’s not just that Luka Dončić is in shape and we want to see how this goes with him leading the Lakers for a full season. It’s that LeBron James is not the focal point of a team for the first time ever, and we want to see how this goes. After the incredibly awkward statement following LeBron picking up his player option, I’m curious what his comments and demeanor are this season.” 

James, 40, was cagey about his future yesterday. Across town, Kawhi Leonard denied any wrongdoing in the ongoing Aspiration scandal, and Zach told me expects commissioner Adam Silver to play it safe in any Clippers punishment. Hm. 

Sign up for The Bounce for Zach’s indispensable thoughts all season.

 

Brian Babineau / NHLI via Getty Images

We’re finishing with the NHL, where Sean Gentille played guide: 

Lovely to see you, Sean. What are the 1-2 things you, the expert, are most interested in during the lead-up to the season?

“From now until February, the Olympics are going to dominate the discourse. That’s as it should be — NHL players haven’t been involved since 2014. Pretty much a full generation of stars have missed out on the experience, and it’s a big deal. After that, it’s going to be all eyes on Connor McDavid. He’s the best player on Earth, he doesn’t have a contract with Edmonton for next season and he’s still trying to get over the hump in the Cup Final. If he doesn’t win one now, when does it happen?”

The McDavid ordeal will be one we follow all season. Whew. We’ll address the WNBA Finals tomorrow after the matchup is set (more on that in a bit). 

Let’s keep moving:

News to Know

Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Finebaum considers Senate run
ESPN personality and legendary radio host Paul Finebaum is weighing leaving his sports gig to run for an Alabama Senate seat, he said in an interview. Finebaum said he would run as a Republican, and recently relocated from Charlotte back to his hometown of Birmingham, Ala. The seat in question belongs to former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who’s running for governor. See Finebaum’s comments here.

MLB managers on the outs
The end of the season means playoff talk, sure, but it also means offseason business has begun for those not in the bracket. A quick smattering: 

Bruce Bochy is out in Texas after narrowly missing the postseason. Bochy, 70, won a World Series ring with the Rangers in 2023. It was a mutual decision.
Bob Melvin is done in San Francisco, which is slightly curious. The team has scuffled in his two seasons (161-163), but the Giants had just committed to him three months ago. Things changed, clearly.
The Twins fired Rocco Baldelli after seven seasons. It had to be done.
In New York, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza hung on to his job, but with caveats. The rest of his staff might be gone. Mendoza leads my 2026 hot seat list already.

More news

Electronic Arts, parent company of all EA Sports games, is going private after a consortium including the Saudi Public Investment Fund bought EA for $55 billion. Read our full report.
Colorado has condemned “religious slurs” directed at BYU by Buffaloes fans last weekend. More here.
Tests confirmed that Giants wideout Malik Nabers tore his ACL. Brutal.
Houston traded OT Cam Robinson to the Browns. See the details.

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What to Watch

📺 MLB: Tigers at Guardians
1 p.m. ET on ESPN
This is getting the placeholder treatment because we literally have playoff baseball all day from this point forward. And this might be the best game. All four games are on ESPN or ABC. See the full slate here. 

📺 WNBA: Fever at Aces
9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
The winner of this goes to the WNBA Finals to face Phoenix. That’s enough of a sell. 

Get tickets to games like these here.

Pulse Picks

The Chicago Blackhawks selected Mason West in the first round of this year’s NHL Draft. West has a bright hockey future ahead. The only hiccup: He’s also a rising high school football star.

The most underrated MLB playoff asset: left-handed batting practice pitchers. 

The new Heisman leader? That’s Oregon QB Dante Moore. We might have (sorry) more on him later this week. 

Some of the world’s best athletes, including Victor Wembanyama and Shohei Ohtani, have a secret: the CLA training method. Jared Weiss illuminated the shadows for us. 

Jake Ciely has names for an early fantasy football waiver wire speed run. See the picks here and profit. 

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Rory McIlroy’s spicy comments about the Ryder Cup crowd. 

Most-read on the website yesterday: ☝️

(Top photo: Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)